When folk singer Suzanne Vega first heard her biggest hit, “Luka,” on the radio nearly 25 years ago, she says it surprised even her.

“I have to say, the first time I heard it on radio, it just kind of jumped out at you,” Vega says is a telephone interview from the airport in Chicago in the middle of a tour that Nov. 17 brings her to Sellersville Theater 1894.

“And the melody line, and I have to say the synthesizer line, the way it begins, that little hook. So it sounded right, it sounded right for its time on the radio. It sounded good coming out of U2 or whatever else was on the radio at that time.”

But Vega also says it was the right time for the song’s lyrics.

The song tells the story from the point of view of a child who is a victim of abuse. Vega says the song’s 1987 release came at “a moment in time where the idea that child abuse was a social issue and not just a private one was really starting to come out more.

“Now we see a lot of cases of child abuse all the time in the papers. Back then, it was still something not really talked about, and considered more private. So it was crafted for [the music], and then also it was also the simplicity of the lyric and the actual message.”

That message, just a part of the highly literate lyrics that have always marked Vega’s work, helped give her a career that now has stretched more than a quarter decade. Her success also laid the groundwork for other female folk singers such as Tracy Chapman, Michelle Shocked, Indigo Girls and others.

These days, Vega, 52, is revisiting that music by releasing re-recorded versions of her catalogue as stripped-down songs that highlight those lyrics, and regroups the songs in thematic albums.

She started the project, called “Close-Up,” in 2010 with an album of love songs, and followed it later that year with “Vol. 2, People and Places,” on which she included “Luka” and her other chart-topper, 1987’s “Tom’s Diner.” “Vol. 3: States of Being” was released in July.

Vega says she always thought re-recording the songs “was something that certain fans would like, ‘cause there’s always been a lot of discussion about the production of the different albums. It’s something that I did particularly for fans that really like the songs and would really like to hear it just in a more simple form, stripping it away from the production.”

But another reason for the project was that the major labels for which the songs were recorded now control those recordings.

“If they decide that they never want to release my albums again, they can do that,” she says. “So a lot of my albums are going out of print. … So this gives me a physical product to sell at my shows, it means I have the rights to these recordings, I can license them out to television shows or do whatever. I can promote my own recordings.”

Vega also continues to make new music. Last year, a play she wrote, “Carson McCullers Talks About Love”, based on the Southern writer’s life and work, had a six-week run at the Rattlestick Playwright s Theater in New York City with Vega not only playing the title role, but writing all the show’s songs — “sometimes during the run of the production,” she says.

She says that she’s reworking the music and plans to reopen the show in fall 2012, probably in San Francisco, after which she’ll release an album of the show’s songs.

She says she also is working on an album of new songs, literally starting the demo process last week. “There’s definitely a backlog of work waiting to come out,“ she says.

Asked what the songs are like, she says, “It’s a little early to say. When something in the demo stage, you never know what the production’s going to end up like. But some of these songs are very guitar-based so far. But that doesn’t mean that I might not cast a wider net.”

She says there likely won’t be another shift as dramatic as her 1992 industrial electronic song “Blood Makes Noise” that topped the Modern Rock chart. “But on the other hand, I really, really like Trent Reznor’s ‘Social Network’ soundtrack, and I’ve been listening to some of that. … So you never know.”

In addition to “Luka,” another song Vega says she was surprised she liked was production team DNA’s hit remix of “Tom’s Diner,” which took what was an a cappella song and laid it over a dance track that went to the top of the charts.

“I mean, if I hadn’t liked it, we wouldn’t have released it,” she says with a laugh. “If I hadn’t liked it, we would have sued them for copyright infringement, and we probably would have won, and they would have gone to jail and that would be the end of that.”

Instead, she says, “I listened to it, I liked it, I said, ‘This is interesting.’ I thought, ‘Let’s buy it from them and release it ourselves.’ And we did, and so the rest is history. … It’s still remixed to this day. So at first I thought of it as an amusing distraction from what I was really doing. But now it’s like part of my life that just keeps on going and has its own kind of life, which I respect.”

Vega says she’ll perform both those songs in her Sellersville Theater show, which she says will have her on acoustic guitar accompanied by guitarist Gerry Leonard, who for years was David Bowie’s musical director and worked with Rufus Wainwright.

“He doesn’t use the electric guitar in normal ways,” Vega says. “We really have a full production, even though it’s just him on guitar. He uses electronics and he uses sound – he uses loops – and he also plays acoustic guitar, so he’s very versatile. So even though it’s just the two of us on stage, it’s a very full sound.”

She says she’ll do three songs from the Carson McCullers play and others from throughout her career, including “Tom’s Diner” and, of course, “Luka.”

“ I think I was really shocked when I realized that so many people from all over the world understood what the song was about and identified with it,” she says. “Which was a surprise to me, because when I had played it without the production, when it was just a song on a guitar, it was not a song that people asked for. People usually wanted to hear [her 1986 single] ‘Gypsy’ or something that had a chorus that they could sing along with. I think some people were disturbed because they felt it was so sad. That’s partly why I was so surprised by the success of it.

“But I’m very moved by how people have been touched by it. I mean, I always know if there’s a woman who looks at me after the show and says, ‘I drove four hours to hear you sing that.’ She doesn’t even have to say any more. I know her story. And that’s why I sing it at every show and I’m happy to do it.”

"Vega says the song’s 1987 release came at “a moment in time where the idea that child abuse was a social issue and not just a private one was really starting to come out more."

With all due respect to Ms. Vega, Pat Benatar. released "Hell is for Children" 8 years earlier

Posted By: Pocono Charlie | Nov 18, 2011 9:18:09 PM

Hello I would like to know if I may use Suzanne Vega's, Luka, her name and the name of the song, Luka in my book. I don't know if this is the proper channel to ask for permission but I've gotten no where.
Suzanne Vega has been a hero in my voice for a long time, I hope she can continue being my hero.

Posted By: Victoria Raaschou | May 15, 2013 3:58:35 PM

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.